Appropriate for college basketball, Hubert Davis sent his team to school.
Coming off three mostly lackluster victories, the top-ranked Tar Heels came out with noticeable effort and emotion against the best opponent of the season so far in the 80-64 victory over previously unbeaten James Madison Sunday at high noon.
Davis was frustrated after the six-point win over Gardner-Webb last week, and he put the three days of practice to good use before facing JMU.
He scrapped the regular white team-blue team approach and divided the squad evenly for what he called “spirited” practices, the word he used for the players busting their butts in preparation for their next game and the schedule getting tougher over Thanksgiving at the three-game Phil Knight tourney in Oregon.
He also called the practices “competitive, very physical, high energy, lots of intensity.” Davis said he doesn’t “call players out,” he calls them “up,” to improve in the areas they need it. They also watched a lot of tape from past games — he said “film tells the truth” and gave them a homework assignment.
“I asked them to write three-to-five things about what they wanted their identity to be,” Hubert said. “What kind of defensive team you want to be and what kind of offensive team you want to look like.” He asked for it by Saturday morning’s practice and received a type-written statement signed by each player. Davis liked it so much he plans to post it in the locker room.
According to Davis, JMU was one of the hottest teams in the country, and the Tar Heels’ “covenant” showed up from the tip-off, especially with their leader Armando Bacot, who grabbed UNC’s first four rebounds and had his first double-double of the new season by halftime, eventually setting a personal record of 23 rebounds for the game.
Davis said they took a step forward. His serial positivity showed up by taking a double-digit lead early and not getting frustrated with the Dukes’ 1-2-2 zone for the first few minutes of the second half. Their lead went down to eight points midway through, but Bacot and leading scorer R.J. Davis (21) pumped it back up to 15; and 5 points from Puff Johnson joining the rotation with a recovered knee helped put the victory on ice.
“I am very proud of them,” Davis said after they held JMU to 35 percent shooting. “This is their team. I’m here to manage them, but it’s their team.”
Featured image via Todd Melet
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